


Freedom to Stay

by shewasjustagirl



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Dare, High School, M/M, Tropetastic Tuesday, rhink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-03-22
Packaged: 2018-10-09 06:20:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10405857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shewasjustagirl/pseuds/shewasjustagirl
Summary: Rhett and Link tiptoe around each other as their senior year of high school begins.Written for Tropetastic Tuesday #3: Kissing on a dare (and oops we kind of liked it what now) in 1000-2000 words





	

"I dare ya."

Beverly winked at Rhett, flipping her hair and walking away down the path to the school parking lot. He stood watching her, appreciating the way the long brown hair fell across her back and her tan legs moved in the afternoon sun.

Maybe Beverly didn't like him, but as he watched her, Rhett was sure senior year was going to be good to him. Girls could be so confusing sometimes, though. If she had a crush on his best friend, why would she dare him to kiss --

"Hey, Rhett, wait up!"

_Link._

Rhett jumped, startled at the feeling of having conjured his friend's presence. 

"Hey man, you alright?" Link glanced in the direction Rhett had been staring. "Oh, I see. Caught you checkin' out Beverly," he teased, nudging Rhett with an elbow and casting him a lopsided grin. "She's looking good, brother."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, definitely." Rhett finally turned, shaking away the clouds in his vision. "I'm not gonna get anywhere with her though, man. She was talkin' about you." 

Rhett mocked a punch at his friend's shoulder and Link moved out of the way dramatically, pretending to dodge the punch and strike back. 

"So you may want to do something about that, bo." Rhett chuckled. "Whatcha doin' now?"

"First day back -- I don't have homework or anything. You got anything today? Your dad making you run drills or something?"

"Nah, man," Rhett laughed. "I got a couple months before all that starts again."

Link smiled broadly. "Good."

 

"Senior year, huh?"

The boys lay in dead grass, hands crossed behind their heads as they watched the late-summer sun fade through the heavy air. Sweat beads pricked at sun-drenched skin, causing their cotton t-shirts to stick to them and covering the backs of their arms and legs in the ground's stray brown blades. 

"Yeah, I can't believe it," Rhett smiled. "It's going to be a good one, I can feel it."

"I guess so," Link replied, his thoughts far away. He took a deep breath before continuing. "I'm really gonna miss you when it's over, though."

"Miss me? You're supposed to be my roommate next year, brother! You're not gonna have a chance to miss me."

"Yeah, we'll see."

Link lifted one arm, laying it at his side and picking thoughtlessly at the grass. It was the first day of senior year, but it felt like an ending. He could feel the days, their childhood, their time in Buies Creek, slipping away. And he feared his best friend was slipping away with them. 

Over the last few years Rhett had become not just their school's basketball star -- he'd become a recruit. The gangly, six-foot-seven teen now embodied potential. His dad, at 5'9", dreamed of having a son play college basketball, and he pushed Rhett hard. Rhett was planning, both at his family's urging and because he loved the sport, to go to a university on a basketball scholarship. But if he did, Link knew he may not be able to follow.

"So, Beverly..." Rhett changed the subject, not wanting to get into a conversation about college today. He wasn't ready to decide. He wasn't ready to disappoint either his parents or Link, and he was of two minds about what he really wanted. 

"She's really pretty, dude. Did she seriously say she likes me?" 

"Sure did. You freakin' lady's man."

Link laughed, heartened by the change of subject and his friend's attempts to force him to remain in the moment. He could worry later. "I'm just a good lookin' man, Rhett. What can I say?"

"Yeah, yeah." Rhett grabbed a handful of grass and tossed it at his friend, drawing another laugh from Link as he retaliated with the pile of dead blades he'd been gathering at his side. 

"Okay, I surrender! Uncle!" Rhett sputtered, blocking the second handful of grass with one hand and sitting up to wipe away the pieces sticking to his cheeks and nose. 

He reached out with a long leg, nudging Link's. "You should talk to Beverly. She's pretty cool. Maybe a little weird, though."

"Weird?

"Yeah, man. She walked right up to me after class and said she wanted to kiss you! And then she dared _me_ to kiss you."

At this, Link sat up, wiping away the grass from his arms and crossing his legs under him. His mouth gaped for a moment at Rhett, who answered only with a raised eyebrow. 

"She wants to kiss me, huh?"

"I think so, brother."

"And she wants YOU to kiss me?"

"I don't know, man. Girls are confusing."

"True," Link laughed, leaning forward and puckering his lips at Rhett. "But are you going to back down from a dare?"

Rhett chuckled, pushing Link's shoulder away before standing. He offered Link his hand and pulled him up into the now-dim light. "Sure am, buddy."

 

Link ran up the court, pulling Beverly along, the fingers of one hand threaded through hers. "Hey Rhett! You looked good out there!"

Rhett turned, grinning down at the couple. "Hey guys, thanks for coming." He gestured at the bench where the basketball team had been seated, "It was just a scrimmage, though. It's easy to look good against your own team."

Link rolled his eyes, mumbling to Beverly, "What did I tell you he'd say?" He punched playfully at Rhett's arm, "Whatever, man. We all know you're a star."

Rhett smiled at this before his face took on a look of concern. "There weren't any colleges here today, but hopefully they'll come around when we really get going next month."

Link tried to ignore the pang in his chest at the reminder that Rhett was excited about college scouts. "I'm sure they will," he mustered. "So, what are you doing later?"

"You better say nothing," Beverly chimed in. "I'm hanging out with my girls tonight and letting Link have a boys' night."

Rhett beamed at them now. It had been weeks since he'd gotten to hang out with Link alone. He looked again toward Link and found big blue eyes smiling back at him. "I'm doing nothing. Wanna hang?"

 

"So how's it going, buddy?"

Link settled himself into the Dynasty and began regaling Rhett with tales of the last few weeks, gesturing widely, hardly stopping to take a breath as he filled his friend in on his relationship with Beverly, a fender bender he witnessed in the Wal-Mart parking lot, and his mom's argument with their neighbors about whether flat or fluffy dumplings were best. 

Rhett laughed along, amused at Link's ability to make a story out of even the most mundane happenings in their lives. Weeks before, he had told Rhett a story about misplacing a casserole dish his mom planned to use for dinner, and Rhett found himself rapt, asking "so then what happened?" and laughing heartily at the tale of such a commonplace misadventure. 

Rhett steered the car away from town without consulting his friend, heading toward the creek. They went on like this for miles, Rhett driving and Link talking. 

"And I guess that's about all." Link's face was flushed from talking for several minutes without ceasing, a lack of oxygen showing itself through still-tan skin. Rhett envied him this. In the summer, Link would turn a golden brown and remain that way until at least Thanksgiving. Rhett turned red in the sun, only in the late summer getting a hint of bronze in his skin, and it was long gone on this late October evening. McLaughlins weren't known for giving up the pasty white very easily.

"Rhett?"

"Huh?" 

"I asked how you'd been. Do you have any stories or anything?"

"Oh uh, yeah, sorry man. Just got distracted," Rhett stumbled. _I was distracted thinking about your skin. Yeah, not sayin' that._ He began rattling off his training schedule and his continued efforts at getting fit for the basketball season, not coming up quickly enough with anything better to tell his friend. 

Link nodded and smiled, trying to give off the appearance of interest, but Rhett knew he'd lost him when he started relaying his progress in pivot shooting drills. Rhett had been making significant progress in the first few weeks of practice, but as much as Link tried to care, these numbers weren't going to mean anything to him.

"But anyway," Rhett stopped himself from going on any longer. "You were right. Basketball pretty much took over when October hit."

Link cast him a dismal grin. "That's what I figured."

 

They walked in silence down to the creek bed, perching themselves on a fallen tree when they reached the water. Link was the first to break the silence. 

"It's going by fast, brother."

"I know. It's crazy."

"I've been looking at schools again. Trying to find one I can afford, maybe something with a film program."

"You've been doing that without me? What the heck, man?"

"You're going to college for basketball, Rhett. Do you think I'll be able to go to any of the schools that are lookin' at you?"

"Of course you will! And there's still a chance I won't even be recruited. If I don't get my jump shot--"

"Rhett." Link turned, grasping at his friend's knobby knee, "I'm not going to hold you back if that's your dream. You're great at it, bo. I get it."

"Why does it seem like you're tellin' me 'bye?"

Link turned back toward the creek, clasping his hands together in his lap and thinking about what to say from here. He had been wanting to have this conversation with Rhett for months, but now that it was time, he wasn't sure he could do it. He wasn't sure he could say that he'd let Rhett go if that's what he wanted. 

"Link?" Rhett frowned. He hadn't been expecting this shift in mood on their boys' night. Rhett had been getting plenty of college talk from his parents, his dad especially, who was more intent than ever that he play college ball, and he was excited to be pursued by recruiters, but he couldn't imagine going on to college without Link. They were meant to do something special together. He turned to face the creek. Maybe he and Link would find some answers in the moon as it danced across the water.

Link looked up at Rhett and licked his lips, deciding to go for broke. "You know, Beverly dared me, too. And I'm not one to back down." 

Rhett raised an eyebrow in question, catching a glimpse of Link just in time to see him touch one hand to the side of his face as their lips pressed together. It was over in an instant, but it left its electricity behind. Link pulled away, his eyes wide.

"Whoa." In the moment, Rhett was unable to come up with anything more eloquent. "I was, uh, I was going to say, and I mean, this was before that...that kiss...I was going to say that I won't ever leave you, buddy. I know we were just kids, but I'm still serious about that blood oath."

Link took a deep breath, a mixture of shock and relief stirring in him. "That's what you were going to say?"

The flush in Rhett's cheeks swelled further. "Well, yeah." 

"I was going to say I wouldn't stand in the way if basketball...if you really wanted to go off without me."

Rhett reached out slowly, taking the shaking hand he had helped Link cut open four years before into his. He leaned forward, searching wide blue eyes before pressing his lips to Link's. He felt Link's shock fade as his friend's soft lips kissed him back. 

They began smiling against each other and Rhett pulled away slightly, cradling Link's chin gently in his free hand. "You can keep kissin' me, but don't ever try to say goodbye to me again, Neal."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for any kudos and comments -- they make my day!
> 
> Come find me on [Tumblr](http://clemwasjustagirl.tumblr.com/) if you're into that kind of thing.


End file.
